Ed Schultz: ARMED FORCES RADIO NEEDS YOU
18 October 2005 10:09 am by Taylor Marsh
ACTION ALERT
Armed Forces
Radio (AFRTS) needs to hear from you.
Send an email – Be respectful, but firm
 |
| See the video… OUR TROOPS DESERVE BETTER |
Rush Limbaugh gets an hour a day.
Yesterday, Ed
Schultz was to debut on AFRTS.. He would have been the first Democrat
and progressive ever heard by our brave troops serving around the world. But
at the last minute he was canceled. However, the Pentagon said “no
decision made with respect to expanding the programming.” Think
Progress has the email that directly contradicts this statement.
If you ask Paul Reickhoff
or Paul Hackett, you’d know that there are moderates and other Democrats serving
today who do not have a voice to listen to. But it’s more than that. This
is what
Democrat vet Mr. Reickhoff had to say about Bush’s little staged and scripted
Armed Forces teleconference.
This thing was not just staged,
it was superstaged. In a disgusting display, the President again used our
troops as political props in an event so scripted that it basically turned
into a conversation with himself. I wish the White House had put this much
effort into post-war planning when my platoon hit Baghdad.Not only were the teleconference troops told
what to say by Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Allison Barber, they were
also prevented from speaking freely by the looming threat of their ground
commanders. Undoubtedly there was a PAO (Public Affairs Officer – likely
someone ranking Major or higher) standing directly off-camera making sure
the soldiers spoke in line with White House directives. Every troop presented
an upbeat view of the situation on the ground in Iraq. There was no talk
of armor issues or mortars attacks. A token Iraqi soldier in the group at
one point gushed to President Bush, “Thank you very much for everything.
I like you!”When I was an Infantry Platoon leader in
Iraq, I was interviewed by CBS 60 Minutes. As the tape was rolling, my commanding
officer stood behind the camera carefully listening to my every word with
his arms crossed. I knew it wouldn’t be fun for me if I strayed from the
prescribed talking points. That incident was one of the motivating factors
that led me to create Operation Truth–an organization that truly represents
the candid voice of our troops and Veterans. The voices we heard today were
neither candid nor representative.
Both sides of the argument should be represented to our Armed
Forces. No political party should have a radio monopoly regarding our troops,
especially when it’s put in place by the Administration holding power. This
would be true whether it was a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.
We know our service men and women get Fox “News” over there. Are
we willing to cede radio to the right too?
We all know what Rush
Limbaugh is about. It’s safe to say that none of our troops represent
the lax moral and ethical standards of Mr. Limbaugh, who is a recovering drug
addict in the middle of a doctor shopping scandal, not to mention his third
divorce. If morals contracts meant anything, Mr. Limbaugh wouldn’t have a
single sponsor. But the right wing looks after their own, while targeting
progressives and other Democrats. Hypocrisy on the right knows no bounds.
The reason for Ed being pulled is still quite suspect. But many
believe it is because he made fun of Ms. Barber’s “scripted” interchange
that made headlines last week.
This is our chance to get a true progressive on AFRTS, which
can mean quite a difference to our serving soldiers. They deserve to know
and hear first hand that Democrats support our troops just as much as Republicans.
We need to take this to them hard. You need to get involved.
